Peter Kent - Bitcoin For Dummies

3 Chapter 3FIGURE 3-1: You’re going to have to prove who you are.FIGURE 3-2: The Coinme wallet.FIGURE 3-3: The new address shown in the Blockchain.com blockchain explorer.FIGURE 3-4: Sending Bitcoin from the Coinme web console and smartphone app.FIGURE 3-5: Let’s buy!FIGURE 3-6: You’re ready to buy; click Buy Now when you’re sure.FIGURE 3-7: Sending money from Coinbase to somewhere else.FIGURE 3-8: Your transaction, still pending.FIGURE 3-9: Your transaction, in the blockchain explorer.

4 Chapter 4FIGURE 4-1: The Cryptotag metal wallet kit ( www.cryptotag.io).FIGURE 4-2: An Ellipal hardware wallet.FIGURE 4-3: The Blue home screen.FIGURE 4-4: Picking your wallet type and saving your seed.FIGURE 4-5: Your wallet, ready for work.FIGURE 4-6: Advanced options enable you to add more randomness.FIGURE 4-7: The BlueWallet, ready for a transaction.FIGURE 4-8: Tell Blue if you want to receive a notification when your Bitcoin a...FIGURE 4-9: The Electrum connections.FIGURE 4-10: Your wallet’s addresses.FIGURE 4-11: The BlueWallet Send screen.FIGURE 4-12: Choose your miner’s fee.FIGURE 4-13: Your change addresses.FIGURE 4-14: Checking out basic wallet info and the export info with a seed.FIGURE 4-15: The wallet import box.FIGURE 4-16: Choose an address to access its QR code.FIGURE 4-17: Create a multi-sig wallet; you choose how many wallets in a group.FIGURE 4-18: Setting up your vault wallet and getting your first wallet seed.FIGURE 4-19: Your XPUB QR code.FIGURE 4-20: The Import screen (on an Android device).FIGURE 4-21: The Import screen.FIGURE 4-22: The Import screen (on an Android device).

5 Chapter 5FIGURE 5-1: A warning from Coinbase.com?FIGURE 5-2: What’s going on with the letter a?FIGURE 5-3: The Google Authenticator app.

6 Chapter 6FIGURE 6-1: We’re betting you’re wishing you bought Bitcoin early in 2016 (or e...FIGURE 6-2: How dollar cost averaging would have worked out over the last three...FIGURE 6-3: The Bitcoin Rainbow. FIGURE 6-4: NFT’d art for sale, on Rarible.com.FIGURE 6-5: $69 million for this NFT-linked collage?

7 Chapter 7FIGURE 7-1: A live view of the full listening node count on the Bitcoin network...

8 Chapter 9FIGURE 9-1: Average network transaction fees over time, measured in US$ per tra...FIGURE 9-2: Bitcoin yearly energy estimates (TWh/Year), along with the Bitcoin ...

9 Chapter 12FIGURE 12-1: Bitcoin volatility — it’s a wild ride!FIGURE 12-2: Bitcoin price and the halvenings; is there an association?

1 Cover

2 Title Page

3 Copyright

4 Table of Contents

5 Begin Reading

6 Index

7 About the Authors

1 iii

2 iv

3 1

4 2

5 3

6 4

7 5

8 6

9 7

10 8

11 9

12 10

13 11

14 12

15 13

16 14

17 15

18 16

19 17

20 18

21 19

22 20

23 21

24 22

25 23

26 24

27 25

28 26

29 27

30 29

31 30

32 31

33 32

34 33

35 34

36 35

37 36

38 37

39 38

40 39

41 40

42 41

43 42

44 43

45 44

46 45

47 46

48 47

49 48

50 49

51 50

52 51

53 53

54 54

55 55

56 56

57 57

58 58

59 59

60 60

61 61

62 62

63 63

64 64

65 65

66 66

67 67

68 68

69 69

70 70

71 71

72 72

73 73

74 74

75 75

76 76

77 77

78 78

79 79

80 80

81 81

82 82

83 83

84 84

85 85

86 86

87 87

88 88

89 89

90 90

91 91

92 92

93 93

94 94

95 95

96 97

97 98

98 99

99 100

100 101

101 102

102 103

103 104

104 105

105 106

106 107

107 108

108 109

109 110

110 111

111 112

112 113

113 114

114 115

115 116

116 117

117 118

118 119

119 120

120 121

121 122

122 123

123 124

124 125

125 126

126 127

127 128

128 129

129 130

130 131

131 132

132 133

133 134

134 135

135 136

136 137

137 139

138 140

139 141

140 142

141 143

142 144

143 145

144 146

145 147

146 148

147 149

148 150

149 151

150 152

151 153

152 154

153 155

154 156

155 157

156 158

157 159

158 160

159 161

160 162

161 163

162 164

163 165

164 166

165 167

166 168

167 169

168 170

169 171

170 172

171 173

172 174

173 175

174 176

175 177

176 178

177 179

178 180

179 181

180 182

181 183

182 184

183 185

184 186

185 187

186 188

187 189

188 190

189 191

190 192

191 193

192 194

193 195

194 196

195 197

196 198

197 199

198 200

199 201

200 202

201 203

202 204

203 205

204 206

205 207

206 208

207 209

208 210

209 211

210 212

211 213

212 214

213 215

214 216

215 217

216 218

217 219

218 220

219 221

220 222

221 223

222 224

223 225

224 226

225 227

226 228

227 229

228 230

229 231

230 232

231 233

232 234

233 235

234 236

235 237

236 238

237 239

238 240

239 241

240 242

241 243

242 244

243 245

244 246

245 247

246 248

247 249

248 250

249 251

250 252

251 253

252 254

253 255

254 256

255 257

256 258

257 259

258 260

259 261

260 262

261 263

262 264

263 265

264 266

265 267

266 268

267 269

268 270

269 271

270 272

271 273

272 274

273 275

274 276

275 277

276 278

277 279

278 280

279 281

280 282

281 283

282 284

283 285

284 286

285 287

Welcome to Bitcoin For Dummies, 2nd Edition, a book that tells you everything you need to know to get started with the original blockchain-based cryptocurrency (including what blockchain and cryptocurrency mean).

This is a very strange subject. Bitcoin is perhaps the most valuable asset (there’s about a trillion dollars’ worth right now) that almost nobody understands. How can you invest in something if you don’t understand what it is? And make no mistake, most people, even some with thousands of dollars’ worth of Bitcoin, don’t know what it truly is. Read this book, and that won’t be you.

We’re firm believers that if you want to be involved in Bitcoin in some way, you need to understand it. Two huge problems come with not understanding it:

Thousands of Bitcoin owners have had their Bitcoin stolen. We explain how that happens and how to avoid it.

Thousands of Bitcoin owners have “lost” their Bitcoin. We explain how, how to avoid this, and why the Bitcoin isn’t really lost (it’s just out of reach).

Our job is to break it all down into intelligible, easy-to-digest, bite-sized pieces that ordinary folks like yourself can understand.

This book explains, simplifies, and demystifies the world of Bitcoin. You find out what you need to know and do in order to decide if and how you’re going to begin stepping into the beautiful world of Bitcoin.